


Tricks

by Preach



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Fix-It - Surviving near-death experience, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loki & Thor (Hurt Loki) - Freeform, M/M, Magic, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2019-12-07 08:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18232223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Preach/pseuds/Preach
Summary: “Why the tears, brother?” a weak, broken voice rasped. “One would have thought that you would already be used to this by now. My death, I mean. Oh, Thor. Always falling for the same old tricks.”





	Tricks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [technorat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/technorat/gifts).



> Fill for Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2019.

“You… will never… be… a god,” Loki gasped out through Thanos’ hand crushing his throat. Thor could see his brother's life being choked out before his very eyes, even as he knelt before the Mad Titan, bound and helpless to prevent it. He strained against his bonds, but the metal encasing his limbs was strong enough to resist even the strength of a god. And aside from brute strength, he had never had Loki’s affinity for magic tricks.

Then, to Thor’s horror, Loki's struggles ceased. He went limp and lifeless in Thanos’ grasp, arms falling loosely by his side.

_No…_

Cold fear swept through Thor as he took in Loki’s broken, lifeless form.

 _Surely he couldn't be…_ Thor’s mind refused to even let him contemplate that word.

Surely things couldn't end this way. Not like this. Loki always had one final card to play. One final trick up his sleeve.

But -

“No resurrections this time,” Thanos smirked as he dropped the corpse of his brother before Thor. The heavy thud of flesh meeting steel rang out through the ship, as final as a death knell.

Tears burned in Thor’s eyes, but he couldn't even howl out his grief. The metal gag on his mouth stripped even that small release away from him. He had no outlet for the futility and rage cresting within him, nothing except the silent, white-hot scream of rage and grief and horror that built and built _and built_ with no release.

Thor raged internally as Thanos casually stepped over Loki’s body, without any more reaction as if it were merely a piece of trash on the floor. He raised his fist, beckoning towards his minions, and like a well-trained team of soldiers, the rest of the Black Order - Corvus Glaive, Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian - stepped forward to gather around him.

Thor could only glare futilely at Thanos through eyes blurred with tears as Thanos raised the Infinity Gauntlet. The Space Stone and the Power Stone gleamed brightly within the golden glove. Thanos clenched his fist and the Power Stone flared with an unearthly purple light. Purple fires began to burn throughout the _Statesman,_ building up towards an inferno that was sure to engulf the entire ship if not stopped.

The Space Stone flared next with a piercing blue glow, and a force field encased Thanos and the rest of his Black Order. The force field contracted to a single concentrated point, and black smoke momentarily billowed outwards, obscuring Thor’s vision. When the smoke finally dissipated, Thanos and the rest of his team were also gone, transported away by the power of the Tesseract.

With Thanos’ departure, the magical chains encasing Thor's arms and legs also disappeared.

Thor immediately threw himself over the lifeless body of his little brother. His fingers tightened against the front of Loki's tunic, and harsh sobs rose in his throat, threatening to choke his breathing.

Loki was gone. _Murdered,_ right after they had finally managed to reconcile.

He would never see his brother's smile again -

There was the slightest movement from beneath Thor.

“Why the tears, brother?” a weak, broken voice rasped. “One would have thought that you would already be used to this by now. My death, I mean. Oh, Thor. Always falling for the same old tricks.”

Thor froze. His mind went momentarily blank with disbelief.

_Loki…?_

“Loki!” Thor cried, hardly daring to believe it. He was so overjoyed that he couldn't even bring himself to be angry at Loki for his deception, not this time. “You're - you're alive! How - ”

“Stay back. Don't touch me,” Loki whispered. There was a thin note of barely-suppressed agony underlying his voice.

Thor immediately jerked away, alarmed and fearful. Loki was hurt. “Brother, are you all right?”

“Stay back.”

An icy blue light enveloped Loki, encasing him from head to toe.

 _The Tesseract?_ For a brief instant, Thor's heart leapt, convinced that Loki had somehow managed to conceal the real Tesseract from Thanos.

But no - the glow was the wrong shade of blue, and with it came a wave of freezing chill, so cold that even Thor, with the constitution of a god, could feel goosebumps breaking out on his skin. Cold frost swirled around Loki's hands, resolving into a very familiar form - an ornately carved box with translucent sides, showing swirling blue frost within.

“The Casket of Ancient Winters,” Thor said, as realization dawned upon him. “I thought it was lost - destroyed with Asgard!”

Loki choked out a laugh. “You don't actually think that I'd have left this treasure behind in the weapons vault? I took the Casket with me, along with the Tesseract. Then I cast a spell to tie my life and magic to it. It turns out there are some perks to being a frost giant after all - no Aesir could have drawn on the Casket’s magic like that. Why else do you think I'm not dead right now?”

Loki's voice was still thin and brittle, each word forced out of his shattered throat. _He isn't healing properly,_ Thor realized, with a thrill of horror. “Loki, what's wrong?”

Loki struggled to sit up, but was too weak to pull himself to sit upright. He swayed, and Thor leaned forward to catch him in his arms.

“It seems that I've burned out the Casket’s magic,” Loki said contemplatively. True enough, the light swirling within the Casket was dimming to nothingness. “It must have taken an ungodly amount of magical energy to pull someone back from the realm of Death. There's no energy left to draw on for healing. The Casket is now about as useful as a mundane box.”

With an effort, Loki chucked the Casket aside in a fit of pique. Even that small, brief exertion seemed to take a toll on him. His breathing turned harsh and laboured as he drew in pained gulps of breath.

Thor felt wretched, watching Loki suffer like this. Tenderly, he leaned forward to brush limp strands of hair away from Loki's forehead, which was slick with drops of cold sweat. Loki shifted minutely in his arms and let out a small sigh, so soft that it could almost have been mistaken for a simple exhalation. Thor would have missed it if he hadn't been focusing all his attention on Loki at that moment.

“Is there anything that I can do?” Thor asked quietly, internally cursing himself for not being able to help Loki any further. If only he had tried to learn even a single healing spell…

“If there was, then I would already have asked you to do it,” Loki scoffed, his voice quiet and raspy. “With time, I'd be able to recover enough of my magic to heal myself. But time is the one thing that we don't have. We’re doomed. There's no way out this time.”

“Whatever happened to ‘ _The sun will shine on us again?’”_ Thor murmured, stroking Loki's damp forehead.

“I just said that earlier to make you feel better,” Loki said dismissively. “Look around you. The ship is burning to ashes around us. Even if we could somehow put out the flames and stabilize the ship, we would not last long in the cold vacuum of space, without air or food or water.” A cracked, bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Just my luck. I burned out the Casket’s magic to revive myself for an extra few minutes of suffering in this tomb. Would that I had saved myself the trouble -”

Thor tightened his embrace around Loki. “Do not say that, brother. I'm glad that you are here by my side. If we must die, I can think of no better way than to die together with you.”

Loki closed his eyes. Thor watched the sweep of his long dark lashes, feeling his heart wrench painfully in his chest as Loki's breathing evened out. They drew closer together, Loki leaning forward to rest his forehead against Thor's.

Something tight unwound in Thor's chest at last, a tension that he hadn't even known he was carrying.

But then Loki suddenly pulled back, raising his head.

Disappointment flashed within Thor, followed swiftly by a resigned sort of understanding. Of course his prickly brother would not have allowed even that small gesture, if the circumstances hadn't been so dire. It was too much to expect -

“Do you hear that?” Loki asked, with a small frown.

In the distance, there was a low hum rising to a roar, the familiar sound of a ship's engines exiting warp.

Thor's eyes widened, his stunned gaze connecting with Loki. As one, they slowly turned to look in the direction of that noise.

Bright light began to fill their dying ship, light as bright as the rays of the morning sun. 

**Author's Note:**

> And then the Guardians of the Galaxy rescued them, and they all killed Thanos together. Haha.
> 
> I hope you liked it! :)


End file.
